


Lucidity

by shaenie



Category: LOTR RPS
Genre: Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2003-05-08
Updated: 2003-05-08
Packaged: 2017-10-12 05:17:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,178
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/121203
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shaenie/pseuds/shaenie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Billy isn't Billy in Dom's dreams.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lucidity

**Author's Note:**

> for zrileybaby's challenge, theme: dreams; words: thunder, silence -- yet another one that didn't turn out as I expected. Am ditching all expectations from this point on.

  
Billy is never Billy in Dom's dreams.

It's bizarre, Dom is aware of this. He even feels obscurely guilty about it, although he can't sort out exactly why that is. He's never really dreamed about actual people, never really had them popping up oddly, here and there in random and apparently pointless cameo appearances. Having Billy cameo in his dreams feels strangely intimate, and vaguely inappropriate, even though there isn't really anything in them that justifies that kind of reaction. And he can't quite help sort of liking it. He is always interested in finding out what his subconscious is going to morph Billy into while he sleeps.

Dom's dreams tend to reflect whatever was happening as he had drifted into sleep. He doesn't know if this is because he doesn't sleep very deeply, or if it's just some kind of weird quirk. Once, during one of the storms that had screwed with scheduling so mercilessly, they had all been forced to sleep in their trailers on site. They had done it before by choice, a matter of not having the energy to get all the way home and all the way back in the morning, or just to optimize the amount of sleep possible between wrapping and starting again the next day, but they didn't do it if they could help it. The beds were small, not terribly comfortable, and there were just too many of them in too small a space.

Dom had fallen asleep that night with thunder pounding in his ears and the wind and rain causing a very slight (and oddly comforting, considering the situation) rocking motion to the trailer. He had dreamed he was Jonah trapped in the belly of the whale, his sense of the outside world limited to what he could hear - which seemed to be nothing but the ocean, the crashing of waves, and the feeling of constant, rhythmic movement. He very much doubts it was a terribly realistic dream, but it had been interesting. He had awoken into silence the next morning feeling a little seasick.

Dom doesn't talk about his dreams, much. He remembers them very vividly most of the time, but they are so deeply strange, so deeply real-feeling, that talking about them makes him uncomfortable.

Once he started having the bizarre Billy-but-not-Billy dreams, it's only gotten worse.

In his dreams, Billy is a stranger sitting next to Dom in a pub. Billy is the cabby driving Dom to the arena (where Dom is supposed to be training dolphins, for some reason). Billy is the waiter at the posh restaurant where Dom has brought his date. He never knows Billy, although he always knows it _is_ Billy (but not), and he isn't too sure how that works in his mind, but things aren't supposed to make sense in dreams anyhow.

He dreams that he is playing chess in a park with his dead Uncle, and Billy is sitting at the same picnic table, reading. He dreams he is taking violin lessons, and Billy is his instructor. He dreams that he's grocery shopping, and Billy is the cashier. He dreams that he's doing yoga on the beach, and Billy is building a sand castle. He dreams that Billy is teaching him to drive a steam locomotive. And one week, three days running, he dreams that someone knocking on his door wakes him up in the morning, and when he answers, Billy is delivering breakfast. Whenever he wakes up on those mornings, he has to double check and make sure breakfast isn't sitting on the counter, growing cold.

He realizes, after this has gone on for a few weeks, that Billy (but-not-Billy) never says anything in Dom's dreams. He never speaks. Even when he's filling some role that would logically involve speaking, the waiter, the cabby, a violin instructor (Dom can't really explain that one either), Billy doesn't speak, but Dom still interacts with him as though he does.

Not like Dream-Dom hears Billy speaking (when he isn't), but rather like Dream-Dom just understands what Billy wants him to do, and words aren't necessary.

He thinks this should feel weirder than it actually does. He and Billy already communicate without speaking half the time, and maybe that's why. He thinks of Billy glancing at him over the edge of his glass - a _lright, Dom?_ \- in his face and eyes and in the set of his body, but not spoken. He thinks of Billy's hands rubbing tension out of Dom's neck after a particularly grueling scene, no need to ask because Billy just knows, no need for Dom to say thank you, because Billy knows that, too.

So the silent communication is interesting, but it doesn't much bother him. He notes it, and it makes him more aware of it when he's awake, but it doesn't feel weird. In fact, Billy showing up in his dreams in itself is feeling less weird every day. He wonders if silent communication feels weird to Billy. He wonders if he ever makes appearances in Billy's dreams.

He doesn't ever decide to tell Billy (or anyone) about the dreams, but he finds himself doing it one day, when they are all lying exhausted on the beach. Dom thinks he might dream about surfing that night, thinks he's had the best time of his life and so he's almost certain to dream it, and opens him mouth to say so, and then he's telling Billy, Orlando, Sean, and Elijah about how Billy keeps showing up in his dreams.

Orlando particularly seems to enjoy the violin instructor one, whilst Elijah is more amused by the dolphin training. Sean doesn't laugh, he just looks thoughtfully at Dom, and says: "I think I have a book about dreams, somewhere. When Alexandra was born, I had this reccurring dream about Christine… Well, I think I still have it, if you want."

I hadn't occurred to Dom to look up what it might mean to have Billy showing up in his dreams all the time, but quite suddenly he is intrigued by the idea. "Yeah, if you can find it. Thanks."

Billy doesn't laugh either. He just regards Dom evenly (Dom can feel him doing it, even when he isn't looking at Billy) for a while.

Later, when they are walking up the beach, back to Orlando's jeep, Billy says: "I don't play the violin, but I play the guitar."

"I know," Dom says, which is true, and looks over at Billy.

"I could teach you, if you like." Billy looks at him, briefly, then away again.

It occurs to Dom that silent communication is a good thing; it's a comfortable thing, but not a very specific thing, sometimes. He stops walking. The others continue on ahead, unaware that Dom has stopped, but Billy knows, and after a few more steps, Billy stops, too. He turns back to look at Dom.

Dom is thinking that probably he doesn't really need to borrow Sean's book.

Billy is smiling faintly, but not speaking, which is okay, because the smile is enough.


End file.
